I chose Priority shipping for $7.95. The total came to $30.90 for two sets of fiver strings. Not bad! So I am hoping the reviews are true, in that they seem to be pretty decent strings. Has anyone ever tried these?

I am impressed with their packaging, as they vacuum-pack their strings. I guess so they don't spoil? At any rate, it does seem cool.

On the bass, they quickly settled in tune, even with using my trem. I like it when strings don't have a long break-in period, and these seem to be that way. Fresh on the bass, they sounded bright and snappy. The lows were clear and even, and the highs cut through well.

The downside. And maybe this has to do with the quick break-in time, but they seemed to lose their top-end really quickly. It felt like they went from being nice and bright to dull and lackluster after only about two weeks. I kept them on for a while just to get the most mileage out of them as I could, but the last few practices had me sounding really dead.

So maybe this is why they were being sold as a cheap two-for-one deal? It seems strange, as I see a lot of top players using them.

We have a gig Saturday, so I put on the second set last night after practice to give them adequate time to settle. I will wait and see if these lose their brightness so quickly as the first set did. If they do, I think I might just bite the bullet, and go back to using Rotosounds full-time again.

I remember liking the Dunlop steels I got when I got my bass back from Mike Lull's shop. They were the closest I've come to the Roto sound without getting 66s. I was impressed by how they sounded once I'd played them for a while, as well. In fact, I liked them more when they were broken in than when they were new. I still prefer 66s by a long shot, though.

Yeah, I still prefer the 66's overall. But I'm hoping that the first set I tried was maybe a dud? Perhaps this second set will perform better. I'll have a better idea after tonight's gig, since they will have been given a thorough playing by then.